World-EU/UK?

Why can’t I download patterns and ebooks directly when I’m shopping from the EU/UK?

I know, it’s a drag, and I’m sorry that you will have to wait a little while* to get your patterns etc, but it’s the best option at the moment. For you and for my little business.

If you would rather have your patterns etc straightaway, you can buy them through my Etsy shop ($US) or my Payhip shop (££). You will be charged VAT based on your location. Please do not use the ‘World’ section of the shop on the Polka & Bloom site, because that will mean lots of headache inducing VAT paperwork for me. 😉

As you may have heard, on January 1st, 2015, a new EU VAT law came into effect. In a nutshell, this law means that you have to pay VAT on digital items that are provided to you without any human interference, i.e. a digital download.

This law is a real pain for micro businesses like Polka & Bloom, because we have to keep up to date with the VAT rates for all the EU countries. And there’s no minimum threshold, so even if I made just £5.00 from EU countries in a whole year, I’d have to go through a super complicated process of declaring the VAT. I won’t bore you with the details of that!

So, to avoid that, EU/UK customers have to buy patterns and ebooks through a separate section of the shop. The big benefit for you is that you won’t have to pay VAT (in some EU countries it’s almost 30%!) and I won’t have to deal with the complications of the EU giant. Phew.

Thank you for understanding. xo Carina

*You will receive the patterns in your order as fast as I possibly can, usually within a couple of hours. Please bear with me during weekends and national holidays, where it may take up to 48 hours.